1.19 - Smart is Sexy

You may have been wondering why you didn't see much of Cupid in the last chapter ... well, Isabel's not the only one with romance in the air.

Here is where Cupid has been sleeping lately ...

King Cupid at rest in his leather and suede bed of honor.

And where exactly is this that he's living the fat life?

Eating lobster and steak has Cupid becoming "torpid" too!

At Pamona Pampered Pooch Kennels of course! (Getting pampered)

Cupid's breeder contacted the Twists recently and asked if he could use Cupid as a 'stud' for genetic variety in his puppy breeding program. Cupid gets to shoot some arrows of love haha!

And so, Cupid is now a proud papa.

That's Blanca (now elderly) in the background. Her last litter of pups (with Cupid!), and Bluebell, the lovely Misty Grey female Cupid is also expecting pups with, woohoo GO stud-muffin Cupid!

Henry Vigo also just got married (finally, he's nearing elderly) and had a huge cookout to celebrate his new generation of pups as well as his nuptials.

Since her household has always eaten what they grow in their garden, this is the first time Isabel has ever seen a huge grill full of steaks, and she decides she LOVES it! (Much to Dad's horror) ... Right then and there on the spot, Isabel makes the decision she's not going to put up with all these eco-friendly, vegetarian, living green rules anymore as soon as she's an 'adult' and calling all the shots!

BEEF, it's what's for dinner! (The dogs all agree with Isabel while salivating)

Along with her new lifestyle attitude, Isabel has also really come quite a bit out of her shell since she started tutoring at the Steele horse ranch.

Suddenly, she's getting attention from all three of the Steele brothers, but for vastly different reasons.

Chase, the popular one, depends on Isabel to help him make it through his junior year, he's really struggling with his grades and desperate to graduate on time next year.

Chase Steele may not be the smartest of the bunch, but definitely a dreamboat and very charismatic.

And then there's the oldest brother, Jake, who unfortunately seems to have very very different ideas about Isabel's visits to the ranch.

Jake Steele, already a young adult last year, and a girl-jockey as well as horse-jockey...

Jake being the bad-boy of the three brothers, managed to corner Isabel in the barn one night as she was leaving to head home just before curfew.

Jake: "What's a pretty little flower like you doing alone? I could show you a good time up in the hay loft ..."

But Isabel bravely reminded him that propositioning an underage girl was definitely more than just a "minor offense" if a cop, namely his Dad, happened to get involved. Jake got the hint.

And then there was middle brother, Andy.

Andy Steele. The quiet, shy one of the three.

Isabel didn't really know much about Andy at all because he was painfully shy and a computer whiz, so he spent almost all of his time secluded in his room doing whatever it was he did on the computer for hours on end. Andy was about to graduate in a few days and his birthday to young adult was soon too.

And then one night, after a particularly long tutoring session, Isabel and Chase just started chatting about non-school things. That's when she learned he was an outdoors lover too, and their signs were compatible.

"ohmigosh I love the outdoors TOO!"

Suddenly, Isabel unbelievably found herself asking Chase if he was going to the prom. She has no idea where that came from - just some brave foolish slip she threw out there.

Chase almost seemed a little sad when he told her he was already going with Bethany Barnes...

"Uh yeah, I'm going with Bethany. She's kinda had it planned out all school year, matching colors for our outfits, ugh...  and all that crap ..."

Isabel lamely plays it off with some "School sucks" kind of remarks to cover her embarrassment.

"Yeah, well, I can't wait to just get school over with and leave town anyways ..."

She decides to be rebellious and stay out after curfew and sneak in a quick game of chess on one of their cool laptops.

"Well, school really does suck. Letting off some steam playing the anonymous online player will help deal with disappointment. Yeah, that's it..."

Little does she know, her anonymous online opponent is actually Andy, who's on the matching computer in the next room and has a direct line set up to the other laptop.

"Wow, she's really good. I'm getting pwned like a boss here!"

The match is mercifully short. And when she's won, a message unexpectedly pops up on her screen:

"Smart is Sexy. Chase is a fool to choose that blonde bimbo over you. I'll take you to prom if you promise not to beat me up about dancing the way you did at chess. I suck at both.... yours in admiration, Andy"

Andy meets her at the door as she comes out to see where he's hiding and sent the message from.

Isabel smiles easily at Andy and compliments his style. "That was pretty clever. I'd love to go to prom with you."

Andy does have to warn her that his birthday is tomorrow and he'll technically be a young adult just days before graduation and prom and hopes that'll be ok with her Dad. Apparently he has all the gentleman qualities his older brother lacks in that department. Isabel assures him it should be fine. (She didn't really mention it to Dad, however)

Just the day before prom, drama happens. Isabel gets stopped in the hallway on the way to gym class by none other than Bethany Barnes who claims they were once good friends and gives Isabel a warning ...

In a syrupy sweet voice she says, "Friends don't steal one another's boyfriends, right Isabel?"

Isabel shrugs off the thinly veiled threat. She thinks Bethany is vapid and shallow and not worthy of any serious concern. It's actually laughable considering Bethany doesn't even know who her date for prom really is anyways.

Smirking over the hilarity of it all ...  "Just wait til' she finds out how wrong she is about it. Drama-queen, pffft!"

 Andy's too shy to have a birthday party, and celebrates his aging up privately, so Isabel doesn't get to see his change until the night of the dance.

Andy, aged up to gorgeous young adult the night of Prom.

The prom was oddly a very casual affair, complete with barn dance decorations. No one except a few snooty girls even wore dresses (like Bethany and Kylie Pelly). Isabel was immensely relieved, as was Andy. They had a terrific time being goofy and generally making fun of everyone else.

Here's their prom picture. I have no idea why Isabel has such a ridiculous look on her face, do you?

I'm pretty sure they were mocking Bethany Barnes doing her Diva pose.

Simon had a slight freak out (while tending his fish at the lab) when he realized his daughter went to prom with a fully grown man and was well on her way to becoming a woman soon herself.

"AAAAGH MY DAUGHTER IS GROWING UP!!!"

But everything went just fine and though Isabel did get her first kiss at prom from Andy, he behaved himself with the utmost manners and had her home by curfew, much to Dad's relief.

~~~

Finally, after the school year is out for summer, the Camp Cinnamon Falls project is completed.

Simon's dream is now reality. A campground with fishing deck, bridge and picnic areas makes his favorite place in Appaloosa Plains an inviting park for the community.

The entire town turns out for the grand re-opening ice-cream social. Even the mayor, Booker Singleton uses it as a campaign opportunity, as does local celebrity, aging country music star Honey Darnell.

Everyone crammed into the tiny little one room cabin to partake of delicious ice cream from the fancy ice cream maker that was donated to the park by some wealthy anonymous benefactor who also owns the mysteriously creepy ice cream trucks ... (cue ominous music)

This picture actually tells a very funny story all in itself:  On the left is Booker, who is schmoozing it up for campaign donations from the wealthy Sofia Martingale who is actually his wife now! To her right is Ethan Parrott, who dropped his ice cream cone in order to take a cellphone photo of Honey Darnell, posing with her own ice cream. But he's busy staring at Sofia with the "hate that sim" thoughts because Sofia is one of the two women his Dad was sleeping with which ended Ethan's parents marriage. What a drama scene haha!

The elderly but ever popular Ms. Honey Darnell posed for photos and signed autographs on the lovely new fishing deck and even gave a small impromptu guitar performance. This is the most attention tiny Cinnamon Falls has had in generations. The whole town is talking about it and visiting.

Who knows, maybe she'll put one more platinum country album out before she kicks the bucket!

Isabel shows up a bit late. She just got done dressing up for an interview at the science center for consideration into the Science Academy next year instead of going to regular high school. She's pretty pleased with herself over how well that went and daydreams of her soon-to-be future while riding up to the campground.

Dream-girl dreams of adventures to come ...

As a special present to Isabel, Simon shows her the nice outdoor chess set he's had built into the lovely deck overlooking the lake and falls. Now Isabel can play chess and enjoy the outdoors, two of her favorite activities together! She's really flattered by the sentiment, but hasn't yet told Dad she intends to leave town soon after graduation.

Isabel suddenly realizes her whole life is about to change.

Isabel strikes up a conversation with one of her gifted program classmates, Billy Lee. Billy's already applying to various colleges for med school and they debate about many intellectual things while enjoying the cookout celebration.

This school year has been great. Isabel has a lot of friends and a new boyfriend too. Ok, so her boyfriend is technically unable to even date her now he's a young adult. Minor complication!

Simon happens to wander over as they're talking and does some cheesy introductions as well as slapping poor Billy on the back nearly making him choke on his hotdog while congratulating him on his aspirations to become a doctor.

Well now the conversation just got awkward! Time to go!

As she passes her Dad, she whispers furiously ...

"Don't even try playing matchmaker Dad, no way!!"

Simon likes Billy of course, he's a much safer prospect than the much older Andy Steele.

But Isabel's got this all figured out.

"Simple Math. Zero plus Zero is still ZERO."

Isabel has ZERO intentions of settling down with a local boy and starting a family. If only her Dad really understood.

She's got PLANS.

Love this beautiful girl. This is what you call a "Smirkle"

From: The Pig's Tale
by: Lewis Carrol

Little Birds are teaching
Tigresses to smile,
Innocent of guile:
Smile, I say, not smirkle-
Mouth a semicircle,
That's the proper style.

Imagine the surreal moment as you hear this poem being recited by Billy as a colorful nuthatch perches on his finger ... yeah. That's weird but cool!

Who knew? - Billy's a zoology nut like Simon. No wonder he's trying to hook them up!

Ch. 1.20 - "Endings and Beginnings" HERE.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Notes:

This has been my absolute favorite chapter to write thus far in my story - especially the scene where Andy secretly messages her that it's him she's stomping at chess and asks her to prom, how romantic is that? =)
Isabel is perched upon the edge of adulthood and so many fun things are happening for her. Next chapter she becomes a young adult and the new generation roll will officially begin for Gen. 2!!

I had so much fun writing in the three Steele brothers. Each has the personality just as written ... the rogue bad-boy, the shy computer geek, and the cheeky charismatic guy who's struggling academically. Isabel received a surprise phone-call after meeting Andy, and I mean literally within one sim-hour, asking her to prom. Shocked me right to laughing and so of course I had to go with it since having her break up Chase and Bethany would have been far less fun for the 'twist of fate' style I prefer! My only regret is that Andy is so much older than Isabel. Chase is only a day or two older but Andy is so much older he'll probably be hitched or moved on by the time she's anywhere near ready to find a partner. She's to remain single anyways, oh well! 

The park I built completely drained the family funds to nearly nothing and so Isabel is going to have quite a challenge herself in getting her career off the ground! Fortunately she has no need to move out of the house yet since she'll be traveling abroad. As soon as Nathan's old enough, I may have Simon and Sarah move out to the cabin at the lake (turning it into a residential lot instead). It's tiny but only needs a stove to be complete! It really seems like their 'living green' kind of dream anyways.